Bob's rifles will receive a coat of Brownells
baking lacquer. The receivers and barrels were rust pitted and a lot of work
would have been required to do a good hot bluing job. I didn't want to spray
paint the bolt stop as one unit, so I disassembled the
stop. This is one place most Mauser users never
detail clean. The ejector arm can be pulled out of the stop with your fingers,
but the spring must be driven out.

With the stop LOOSELY held, (it's really held by the stop prongs lying on
the leftmost vise jaw) drive the spring down.

After the spring moves about 1/8-inch it will look like this, with the
spring sprung, and no longer available to the punch.

At this point you may work a small pry into the end and work the spring out.

See what I mean? Lots of crud. After cleaning the spring and box, the spring
was polished and the box was blasted, sprayed and baked. Now the stop can be
reassembled.

The spring, nicely polished, is pressed into the box using padded vise jaws.
As the spring reaches the far end, a little help may be required. This is done
by turning the box over from the position shown and pressing down on the end of
the spring as the vise is closed.

On one of the stops I ground the thumb ridge off and replaced it with a
knurled piece to provide a non-slip surface. The knurling was done by hand to a
piece of soft steel scrap. The scrap was soft soldered to the box. Don't plan
on soft soldering if you intend to "hot blue" the rifle!